


The Hearts of Gold

by watermelloon (linumlea)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Comedy, Eventual Romance, M/M, fantasy with sci-fi elements, rated teen for mild language
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-28
Updated: 2016-08-28
Packaged: 2018-08-11 16:11:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7899355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/linumlea/pseuds/watermelloon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hunk and Lance are young conmen traveling all over the Solar System, seizing opportunities and sometimes an unassuming wallet. Or jewelry. Or a sword.<br/>But this time they stumbled into a slightly bigger mess. All the signs point to a treasure hunt - what it will be in the end, time will show.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Hearts of Gold

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired heavily by "The Road to Eldorado" and "Treasure Planet". I borrowed a lot from those movies.

Lance inhaled deeply and threw the dice on the table, almost leaning on it in anticipation. The space cramped with people around him stilled in silence for a moment.

The dice stopped with a rattle on the wooden table. Lance's face split in a huge grin. "Pay up."

"This is some kind of a joke. A swindle! No one can throw so many fulls in a row," the guy across of the table raged.

Lance leaned back in the chair, flamboyantly flicking his hand. "What can I say-" A hand gripping the front of his shirt and forcing him up stopped him mid-sentence. "Whoa, whoa! I'm sure we can talk about this?"

The man Lance just won all cash from let go of the material and slumped back in his seat. "Again," he demanded.

"Lance," Hunk stopped plucking on his ukulele.

"Sure, no problem. You've still got something on you, though, right?"

"Lance," Hunk's voice became more cautious than irritated.

The man pulled something out of his vest and slammed it on the table. Lance picked it up when the man folded his arms.

"It's… It's a cube," he said, eyebrow raised.

"I won it from a guy who swore it's a map. Supposed to take you to a legendary treasure or some shit. I don't know and I don't care. Look at the metal-work, though; it's worth a pretty penny, sure it is."

Lance examined the surface, a complicated pattern of at least three different shiny metals covering the whole cube. He put it back on the table, considering.

Behind him, Hunk drummed on the instrument, an annoying and distracting sound. When Lance finally looked at him, Hunk glared.

"Alright," Lance said, looking away and pulling that night's winnings out. "Let's get on with it."

Hunk pulled on the strings, the instrument screeching in his hands.

"Relax," Lance told him, already shaking the dice. "How many do you bet I can do this time?" he asked the man across of him.

The man was about to reply when one of the dice slipped from Lance's hand and rolled under the table.

"I've got it," the man dived below it. When he didn't come back up for a few solid seconds, Lance glanced at Hunk, who deliberately looked away, hanging his ukulele securely across his back.

"Hey, what's up, man? Can't find it?" Lance forced his voice to sound easy-going.

The man came up and threw the dice back on the table. His face was the colour of a tomato in the setting summer sun. "It's rigged. It's fucking rigged. I fucking knew it!"

"What are you talking about, the dice is perfectly clean-"

The man threw the dice three times, each time scoring a six. The crowd around them oohed readily.

Lance looked between the man, the dice and the cube. His expression was a mix of disbelief and hurt. "Hunk," he rose from his seat. "How could you. I trusted you, like a brother. When you gave me this dice, I thought it a gift of good faith."

Hunk rolled his eyes and followed suit. "How dare you! I would never. You must have rigged it yourself and now you are trying to force the blame on me. And to think I've sworn to be your blood brother," he put his hands on his face, taking a peek between his fingers to make sure Lance managed to grab everything from the table. "This calls for a duel! Lend me a sword, we must settle this in blood!"

"Agreed!" Lance pulled out a sword from one of the other patrons' sheath, drowning the woman's protests in the dramatic cry of the metal.

Once they were outside, Hunk cried out and attacked, pushing Lance to the nearby alleyway. Lance smirked at him and let himself stumble backwards. The crowd in front of the tavern was full of encouragement.

"Make him pay!"

"To the first blood!

"Give me back my cube!"

"Now?" Lance asked between the slams of the swords. Hunk glanced over his shoulder and nodded.

"Please don't hurt my face!" Lance dropped his sword and leaped into the alleyway.

"Why, you-" Hunk started running after him. They were forced to stop short in their tracks when the exit of the alleyway was blocked right before they reached it.

"Damn it," Lance said under his breath. Hunk looked up to the face of the android in front of them. Expressionless as always, the mechanical cop's gaze seemed to drill through them.

"Hey! Police force! He stole something of mine," came from behind them. Lance swore and dived between android's legs, reaching out and pulling at one mechanical ankle. After the robot sank down to his knees with a lot of racket, Hunk remained frozen in place for one precious second, his palms up, wordlessly asking the world about the way it works.

Breaking free of his reverie, he pulled at android's shoulders and stomped down its back only to discover Lance was again in trouble. The second android was reaching to its waist; Hunk shut his eyes and slammed into the cop, throwing it off balance.

Lance turned to him, eyes huge. Back in the alley, the android was getting up, mechanics whirring furiously.

"You have no right to remain sile-"

They didn't hear the rest of their rights, already stomping far down the street. In front of them buzzed the brimming, huge marketplace, the biggest in Jupiter's region; heart of the city.

They almost reached the safety of the crowds when two cops surfaced in front of them; another two pairs were coming from sidestreets on their left and right. Hunk stopped in his tracks and grabbed Lance's hand, dragging him to a pile of boxes at the side of the street.

He climbed them quickly and pulled at the ladder of the fire escapes on the building. Leaping three stairs at the time, they reached the roof and started running towards the docks, jumping from one roof to another. They got a few terrified screams out of tenants spending their afternoon at the green roofs, Hunk apologizing before disappearing behind the chimneys.

Distant copter whirring made them plunge into a narrow alley right by the coast. Lance pulled Hunk into a giant container standing on the street, shutting the lid right as the android cops galloped past the alley.

They sat still as salt sculptures, barely breathing, until the noise outside died down. Hunk slumped, hitting the wall of the container with his shoulders and instantly straightening; the ukulele didn't appreciate being squished. In the darkness he could barely make out Lance's figure sitting right next to him.

Hunk breathed in. "Lance, this is so bad."

"We escaped, didn't we? Everything is fine, relax." Lance realized his hand was still clasped on Hunk's forearm and pulled away to lean his back against the wall.

"No, it freaking isn't! We assaulted the police officers. Everyone in the system will know to look for us within a day. There is no way we will manage to sell anything you won here. And no one will let us on a ship, that's for sure. I'm not going to spend another day in the Solar Prison, Lance, not another day," Hunk dissolved into his rant. "The cells are cramped and food is terrible and since we both already had sentences no judge will have any sympathy for us."

"It's not like they ever had," Lance folded his arms, pulling his knees closer.

"That's what I'm saying. Look, we are at the docks already. We just need to find a trans-system ship immediately and go to Earth. Earth is a total dump, no one will look for us there."

"Yeah, but Earth has no out of the system cruises. If situation calls for it, we will have to waste time on going to Mars first."

"Oh, then why don't we just go to Kuiper belt and start meteor farming. That will be fun. You know, we will buy a little meteor farm together. You will be a stay-at-home dad, because we will adopt a kid, maybe two, and I will be working hard, mining stuff out of meteors. At the end of the day I will come home tired and fall asleep on the couch before dinner and you will be pissed because I didn’t even eat that dinner you made with your own two kitchen robots, but you won't tell me that until ten years later when you throw divorce papers into my face and say you had enough and you are taking the kids. I don’t want us to tear our family apart, Lance. Think of the kids."

Lance sighed and Hunk imagined him rolling his eyes. "Listen, I know a guy. He will help us."

"I don't know if you remember, but we are kind of together all the time and I know everyone you know and right now I think I know who you are talking about and, man, that's a bad idea. He has sold us out once before."

"Yeah, but that was before that Europa business we did together. He came clean then."

"He shook your hand, said 'I hope you don't hold a grudge for that selling you out business, right? I mean, a guy gotta eat, yeah?' and you said 'yeah, no problem' and made googly eyes at him the rest of the day."

"I hate how observant you are and how good your memory is."

They both jumped when the container shook.

"What the hell? This feels like an elevator, are we going up?"

Hunk was too busy covering his mouth to respond, motion sickness getting the best of him. He sighed in relief when the container seemed to be placed down, the bottom of it creaking loudly.

The following four clicks resounded within the almost empty space and finally everything became silent.

"Lance?"

"Yeah?"

"We are in trouble again, aren't we?"

Lance got up to his knees, pushing at the lid over their heads. Groaning with effort, they both called in all their strength, to no avail. They were trapped.

 

"Listen, before we die, I want you to know-"

"We are not dying, Hunk."

"I'm saying this just in case. Remember that burrito last week? I didn't eat it. I know you think I did, but it was you. You sleepwalked. I have proof."

"Pfft, no, I didn't," Lance said, but he didn't sound so sure. "I didn't, right? Besides, what proof?"

"A photo," Hunk said smugly. "I was keeping it for blackmailing, but seeing as we might now get out of here any time soon, I thought you should know."

"Why are you always so pessimistic? Why do I always have to be the beacon of hope?"

"You are right, we should switch. Let me start; don't worry, Lance. Everything will be fine, it's not like we are confined in a cramped space with no means of escape."

"You are even worse at this than me," Lance laughed. He startled suddenly, covering Hunk's mouth when he was about to reply. "Listen. There is someone out there."

Outside they could hear multiple faint voices, words indistinguishable.

"Hey! In here!" Lance cried out and banged his fists on the wall. Hunk joined him without hesitation.

Just a minute later they were covering their eyes in the sudden brightness of the light. A few pairs of hands pulled them up and outside; they blinked and both tried to back up a few steps at the same time, hitting the container with their backsides.

The people in front of them were heavily armed, their stares nothing short of hostile. One woman finally pulled up the rifle slung across her back and folded her arms.

"Alright, kids, why were you there?"

Hunk glanced at Lance, but Lance's voice seemed to have betrayed him; he was standing opening and closing his mouth.

"We, uh. We needed a place to hide. Bad people were chasing us," Hunk said finally.

"Bad people, huh? What's up with that?"

"We got in a bit of trouble. Inadvertently," Hunk gave her his best smile. It faltered when she continued to give them a cold look.

"Lieutenant?" a man behind her pitched in. "Should we notify the captain?"

"I will do that in person," she said decidedly. "Escort them up; the captain will decide what to do with them."

As they were pushed to follow the lieutenant, Lance and Hunk shared a look. They were onboard a ship. When Hunk glanced behind them, he found that the container they were trapped in was just one of many standing on the deck. Whipping his head around, he felt a pang of fear strike him. The ship was flying away from the Ganymede's orbital station, buildings of the station's town slowly vanishing in the distance.

He couldn't tell the course of the ship just yet, but he didn't have a good feeling. Beyond the ship's sides deep space glittered and blinked.

Ascending the stairs, he caught sight of Europa far away; the moon was slowly disappearing beyond Jupiter's giant figure. One last glance and they were pushed into the bridge.

The lieutenant approached the figure of an overwhelming height standing in the centre of the room and cleared her throat.

"Captain," she said, standing at attention.

The giant person startled and turned slowly, finally facing them. A shiver crept up Hunk's back as the pair of deep-set eyes above a jaw full of sharp looking teeth was set on them.

"Lieutenant," an unexpectedly rich voice could be heard. "Finally back from your patrol?"

"Yes, madame."

"The bridge seemed rather hollow without you here, truly."

Wrinkling his forehead, Hunk glanced at the lieutenant. She was clearly fighting back a smile, a slight tint of pink coloring her cheeks.

"I'm glad to be back at your immediate service then, captain. In the meantime, I'm sorry to inform you we have a few rats onboard."

"Oh? What could have attracted them here?" the captain sat heavily in her chair, propping up her chin on her paw. Ears that stood up nervously on the top of her head moments ago now laid more slack. With her other paw, she brushed away the long, well-kept mane away from her eyes.

"Safety, apparently."

"Safety? Aboard this ship?" captain asked disbelievingly; she laughed. "Let them walk the plank."

"Wait!" Lance pitched in. "We can pay you."

"Gold is of little interest to me, little man. Where we are going, whatever you can pay me pales in comparison to the treasures awaiting."

"Something else then," Lance flailed his palms. "We are men of many talents. I sing, he plays. If you agree to let us free in the nearest port, we will pay you for the short trip with gold of entertainment."

All eyes turned to the captain, who seemed to chew over the proposal and finally nodded.

"Lock them up for now. They will entertain me later during dinner."

As they were pushed out of the bridge, a snippet of the ongoing conversation followed them.

"How do you feel about lamb, lieutenant?"

"Captain?"

"I was hoping you could join me, actually. If you don't mind…"

When the solid crate of the ship's brig shut above them, Lance and Hunk sunk down to the mostly bare floor.

"Lance, this is so bad."

"I know, okay? We are going to make it out of here though, I promise."

Hunk wasn't really listening to him. "We haven't revised our best piece in weeks. We can't bullshit it, I don't want to think what will they do to us if we do."

Lance stared at him. "We are facing a potentially fatal situation and you are worrying about the quality of our musical piece?"

"One problem at a time, Lance!"

 "I'm almost sold at the idea of just giving up right now, Hunk, look what you are doing to me. Also, I haven't had anything to drink for the past five hours." He stood up, palms on his hips, facing up to the crate above their heads. "Excuse me. Excuse me, hello! I need water, pronto! I can't believe the inhumane treatment of the prisoners here. Artist prisoners, at that. Is that how you would treat opera singers?" he cried out.

"They are pirates, Lance."

"Pirates or no pirates, I'm an artist. Contrary to popular belief, artists need sustenance to continue making art."

"A con artist."

"An artist nonetheless, Hunk. That's my last word."

 

Three days and three evenings of entertaining ship's command later, Lance sat cross-legged in front of the wall in the brig. He carefully eyed the distance, felt the surface across of him and thumped his forehead on the wall.

"Anything yet?" Hunk asked, plucking away at the ukulele.

"Not. Yet," Lance replied, punctuating each word with a thump. Finally he slumped and let his eyes fall closed. "I don't know how to get us out of here."

"Did you see the constellations yesterday? I have never seen any of them. We are far beyond the Solar System, that's for sure."

"Not helping, Hunk."

"At least they didn't take away our things."

"Oh, yeah," Lance felt for the pockets in his jacket, pulling out one thing after another. "Trash," he concluded, looking at the pile of coins, credit, keys, dice and various pieces of rope. Next to him, Hunk picked up Lance's last object of betting, the metal cube. Cocking his head, he scooted over to the spot of light coming from above. Lance stared blankly as Hunk turned the cube in his hands, inspecting it closely through squinted eyes.

Hunk raised one eyebrow and pressed one finger of the surface; turning the cube this and that way, he pressed one spot after another. After a few seconds he grinned and touched the last spot, triumphant.

The cube clicked and fell apart in his hands.

They both stared at the metal remnants littering the floor. "How did you do that?" Lance asked.

"I followed the atomic numbers of the metals in the order they are featured on the periodic table. I'm sorry?"

"I'm not even mad, just impressed. Do you seriously know the whole perio-"

Lance stopped when the pieces rattled and zinged into the air, coming together into a new shape. A plate covered in shining lines floated down and finally rested on the floor, immediately snatched by Lance.

"Is that… a map?"

"This- This is the Solar System," Hunk pointed at one of the outlines on plate's edge.

"The guy back in the tavern said it's a treasure map. If he was right, then that system in the center-"

"It must hold the treasures. And there is only one planet there."

"Hunk. Hunk, holy-"

"I know, I know!" Hunk clutched his head in bewilderment. "Real, actual treasure map!"

"What if it's _the_ treasure?"

" _The_?" Hunk's eyes went huge. "You don't mean…"

"White Sword's treasure."

"Holy-"

They both whipped their heads to look at the plate again. The planet in the center shined bright, casting shadows on the walls while a distant rumble rolled over the deck.

**Author's Note:**

> http://thecurtainfalls.tumblr.com/  
> If anyone wanna come scream with me about Voltron or Hance or whatever ^^
> 
> I'm doing my best, English is not my first language though.


End file.
